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Today is your chance to do better and I needed that reminder more than I care to admit. Yesterday had its way with me. I let impatience cut in line, I let worry chew on the corners of my faith, and I let a conversation end in silence when a gentler word would have changed the whole thing. But sunrise has this way of putting a hand on your shoulder and saying, quietly but clearly, you can begin again. That is the gift of mornings on Route 66. They start slow, gold light on old pavement, coffee steam rising, and the invitation to choose differently than before.
I sat in a booth in a nearly empty diner, the kind that still opens early for truckers and wanderers who think best before the world wakes up. A waitress with tired eyes and a kind voice topped off my cup without asking. She said, “Rough day yesterday?” I laughed because she could read me like a billboard. I told her it had been a long one, the kind that drags behind your shoes even after the sun goes down. She nodded and said, “Well, honey, today is fresh.
Today is your chance to do better. Treat it like it belongs to you.” There are sermons in the simplest places if you are willing to listen. And mornings like this remind me that today is your chance to do better, not by fixing everything at once but by choosing one small act of grace that changes the direction of the day.
Today Is Your Chance When You Feel Broken
There is a tension we do not talk about enough. The pull between who we were yesterday and who we hope to be tomorrow. Most people think the hard part is knowing the right thing to do. It is not. The hard part is choosing it. Over and over. Even when you feel tired. Even when you feel alone. Even when your heart is heavy from trying to hold too much. That is where courage shows up, not in the loud moments but in the quiet choices that shape the rest of the road.
I told myself that morning that doing better did not mean being perfect. It meant being present. It meant slowing down long enough to see the stranger who needed a smile. It meant offering kindness even when my own tank was running low. It meant listening more than I talked, praying more than I worried, and giving grace the same way I hope to receive it. Give me 5 minutes. I will give you hope. That line came back to me right then. And for the first time in a long time, I believed it for myself too, not just for the people I serve.
Today Is Your Chance To Be Brave
Sometimes the road asks us to be brave. Other times it asks us to be honest. And every now and then it asks us to simply begin again. I did not fix everything that morning. I did not rewrite every mistake from the day before. But I did sit with my coffee and offer God the pieces. And He did what He always does. He began shaping something new from what felt worn out. You cannot rush that process. You can only welcome it.
✨ Roadside Reflection:
Yesterday cannot be changed and tomorrow is still learning its shape, but today is yours. Today is your chance to take that small step, speak the kind word, choose the better road. Grace will meet you there. And when doubt whispers that your effort is too small, remember that every long journey is built on tiny decisions that lean toward hope. You do not have to fix the whole world today. You just have to do better than you did yesterday, and trust that God can turn even the smallest act of courage into a mile marker someone else will follow.
Read more Journal entries: Faith and Good Courage Journal
Learn more about compassion and service: Greater Good Science Center